ACT suburbs fail the ‘family friendly’ test

THE high cost of Canberra housing contributed to not one ACT suburb making the national list of the top 100 suburbs for family living.

Compiled by by RP Data for Aussie Home Loans, the national report – “Top 100 Suburbs For Family Living” – found that Melbourne suburbs made up 31 per cent of the top 100 “family friendly” suburbs of Australia, followed by Brisbane (22 per cent), Sydney (21 per cent), Adelaide (12 per cent), Hobart (9 per cent), Perth (4 per cent) and Darwin (1 per cent).

None of Canberra’s suburbs gained a rating because of a combination of higher housing prices and a scarcer number of amenities compared with other cities.

The Top 100 list from a total of about 3800 suburbs across Australia analysed, ranked suburbs on a range of factors, including house prices, block size, average number of bedrooms, historic capital gains and proximity to local amenities.

The Hobart suburb of Kingston ranked number one in the Top 100 report, as it provides the best combination of affordable home prices ($350,000 median price); an average block size of 828 square metres and an average 3.3 bedrooms per house, as well as proximity to amenities such as schools and shopping centres.

RP Data research director Tim Lawless said, “Obviously housing affordability played a big part in the report and that is why Sydney suburbs were ranked behind Melbourne and Brisbane. Another interesting statistic in our analysis that that almost half the top 20 suburbs of Melbourne are located within 25 kilometres of the CBD.

“Meanwhile suburbs in Sydney’s Blue Mountains – located approximately 50 kilometres from the CBD – featured heavily in the city’s top 20 suburbs, while suburbs within the Moreton Bay council area were most populous across the Brisbane Top 20.”

Five of NSW’s regional suburbs, including Goulburn, featured in the Top 10 regional suburbs for family living, followed by four in Victoria and one in Queensland, with the leading regional suburb in Australia being Orange in NSW, followed by the Victorian suburbs of Wallan and Bacchus Marsh.

Based on median prices, Adelaide emerged as Australia’s most affordable mainland capital city, with 15 of the top 20 suburbs having a median price of under $400,000, while Hobart won the top spot with a median price of $350,000 – less than half Sydney prices.